I’m slightly rooting for Raptors. But like a minute left, they were up by ten, and I was a bit nervous, because ten-to-zero run in sixty seconds is totally realistic for the Warriors.

Raptors

· Leonard – had an alright game. There were moments when I was sure the ball was about to go out of bounds, but Kawai’s “Claw” grabbed the ball. (Nike made a Claw logo, looks cool, but then Kawai switched to New Balance.)

· Danny Green – had an alright game, knocked down a couple threes, played some decent defense.

· Siakam – lanky, tall, moves well, HUSTLES had a monster game.

· VanVleet – short, undrafted, pestered Curry into “poor” shooting.

· Lowry – point guard, evidently has taken more charges than anyone this season.

GoldenState

· Durrant – did not play (injury a couple weeks ago)

· Curry – “off” night (44% from three point)

· Thompson – got frustrated at a call, threw ball back at the ref, but ref didn’t see, and was T-ed up for hitting ref in the back with a ball.

I was looking forward to this season…which, I know is about a quarter of the way through, but the seasons too long, and I try to ignore it until Christmas Day games.

I was looking forward to:

How good is San Antonio gonna be now that Kawhi Leonard is health… [record scratch!!!!!!] …what, Kawhi is in Canada??? Well, at least he’s healthy. Sigh. OK, the Spurs have always been a well run organization and should be alright with ….[record scratch]… Spurs currently in twelfth place???!!!

OK, how good are the Rockets gonna be? What?? They are currently in tenth place!?!

LeBron went to LA. Sigh. I liked him. Wait, he’s beefing with President, and the President is claiming he always liked MJ more. DARN IT!!! Now I have to root for LeBron to win a few more championships, …for the freakin’ Lakers!!

I heard about Jimmy Butler going off on his teammates in a practice. Highly entertaining. Bulter screaming insults and profanities, and leading the bench to beat the starters in a scrimmage. LOL entertaining. (Not that I recommend that kind of bridge burning behavior, kids. Especially since the only person that seems to like it is Tibs, and Tibs is kinda crazy, and you’re trying to get away from Tibs.)

I hear Boston is having a tough time getting their team to work well together, that they may have too much talent.

My boss, is huge UNC basketball fan, and so I’ve been conditioned to type things like dOOk or worese when referring to Coach K’s squad. (It doesn’t help that they have had such esteemed players such as Chris “chest stomper” Laettner …sorry, Dream-Team-Olympic Gold Medalist “chest stomper” Laettner, or their tradition of flopping, or Grayson Allen .)

So, I say, “Go for it, Coach K. Show everyone that one-and-done is silly. That some players have such skill that they are wasting their time taking classes. Crush every team you face by 30. Make college basketball not fun.”

Game #2 – was awesome… Sue Bird scrambling, in traffic, after a loose ball, and jacking up a last second shot for three that goes in. Beautiful. I have watched it many many times. As she was launching that crazy shot, MrG said “skill” and it went in.

game #3 –

exciting game – six lead changes, seven times tie-game… and close enough at the end that I was still thinking “It could go either way, this is a Seattle team after all”…and Howard had five fouls and Bird’s nose started bleeding again.

I felt sorry for LaToya Sanders (Mystics)… ball going out of bounds, last touched Mystics, Stewart boxed out Sanders, somehow Sanders jumped around, flipped the ball in, Mystics got it, and easy two points. Sanders reward for her awesome hustle play, evidently the side is a bit lower than the court (!) at GeorgeMason University and Sanders had a horrible looking twisted ankle.

Whitcomb (UW alum), off the bench, had two big misses, Bird told her “keep shooting”…Whitcomb then got two from deep, and two steals.

I wish I knew more about basketball. It looked like each team changed their defensive assignments and offensive game plans to start the game each game. Which I guess is to be expected in a playoff series.

Bird and Taurasi were teammates at UConn…forever ago. This year they were #1 and #2 for Assists/Game.

…seconds left in the game, Taurasi gets the pass, dribbles to corner, Bird practically draped over her, and she makes the three to send it into OT.

Bird was in shock, they had been up by eleven, and now going into overtime. She sat on bench, for a whole 1.5 seconds in shell-shock, and then started yelling encouragement & direction to her team.

Taurasi was livid when she didn’t get the call on her last shot as time expired. … Although it wouldn’t have mattered, they were down by four, and she shot a long two. She glared at the ref for her walk off the court, and for good measure spat on Seattle’s court as she left.

Let’s see… Stewie (6’4″) of the Storm (my bobblehead) is this year’s MVP. The Mercury have 6’9″ Brittney Griner, first woman to dunk twice in a single game.

We’ll just add that the Storm are better people, because Taurasi leads the league in technicals, …and Griner is tenth place. (Just kidding. I hear Taurasi and Griner are awesome people, excellent role models, and I would be honored if my kids took after them.)

Speaking of fouls… props to young point guard Jewel Loyd of the Storm, she took two hard fouls in OT to help SEA win game two. (Griner fouled out in OT, because she decided to punch someone in the gut as they ran past her. Taurasi whacked Loyd in the throat while they were trying to get a rebound.)

Game #5… I watched with the family. MrGrunty was yelling at the coach in the first half. I told him, there’s a lot of game left, and Phoenix is getting fouls on their star players, it’s still good. MrCuddles was next to me on sofa and we would give each other hi-fives when something good happened, and he would yell “that’s a travel” when the Mercury did something good. Then, really exciting fourth quarter, back and forth… Loyd and Howard doing the little things, Whitcomb stepping up… and Bird being amazing. (You have have seen a few tweets about Bird. My favorite was “I WOULD LIKE TO FORMALLY APOLOGIZE TO SUE BIRD FOR NOT NAMING ALL THREE OF MY SONS AFTER SUE BIRD” by Shea Serrano.)

AND now…been excited all day… tip off for game 1, SEA -vs- WASH (which MsS finds funny) in twenty five minutes.